Extension of aircraft tracking and positive identification from movement areas into non-movement areas

ABSTRACT

At most airports, responsibility of air traffic control starts and stops at the entrance or exit to the runway movement areas, which are taxiways and runways. In the non-movement areas, such as hangers, ramps, and aprons, aircraft movements and separation are no longer the responsibility of air traffic control, but is the responsibility of other parties such as the airport itself, airlines, or other parties. The use of tracking technologies for air traffic control is therefore focused on the movement areas, not the non-movement areas, where there are limitations in aircraft tracking. Furthermore, many of the aircraft transmitting devices are switched off in non-movement areas exacerbating tracking problems in these areas. The present invention includes several methods including broadband multilateration, to extend aircraft tracking from the movement areas into non-movement areas without the need to extend special air traffic control equipment into those areas.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/545,800, filed Oct. 10, 2006, and incorporated herein by reference; This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/492,711, filed Jul. 25, 2006, and incorporated herein by reference; This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/429,926, filed on May 8, 2006, and incorporated herein by reference; This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/343,079, filed on Jan. 30, 2006, and incorporated herein by reference; This application is also a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/342,289 filed Jan. 28, 2006 and incorporated herein by reference; This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/209,030, filed on Aug. 22, 2005, and incorporated herein by reference; This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/257,416, filed on Oct. 24, 2005, and incorporated herein by reference; This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/203,823 filed Aug. 15, 2005 and incorporated herein by reference; This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 1/145,170 filed on Jun. 6, 2006 and incorporated herein by reference; This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/743,042 filed Dec. 23, 2003 and incorporated herein by reference; application Ser. No. 10/743,042 is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/638,524 filed Aug. 12, 2003 and incorporated herein by reference; application Ser. No. 10/638,524 is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/516,215 filed Feb. 29, 2000 and incorporated herein by reference; application Ser. No. 09/516,215 claims is a Non Prov. of Provisional U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/123,170 filed Mar. 5, 1999 and incorporated herein by reference; application Ser. No. 10/743,042 is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/319,725 filed Dec. 16, 2002 and incorporated herein by reference. Application Ser. No. 10/743,042 is a Non Prov. of Provisional U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/440,618 filed Jan. 17, 2003 and incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to the field of aircraft and ground vehicle tracking and surveillance. The present invention is directed toward methods, techniques and apparatus to extend the positive identification and tracking of aircraft from movement areas into the non-movement areas.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Prior Art air traffic control systems are geared up to track planes in the air and on runway surface areas to optimize efficiency and provide safety. Safety is assured by “separation” whereby air traffic controllers employ various procedures and technologies to make sure that aircraft are physically separated by a minimum distance. At most airports, the responsibility of air traffic control starts and stops at the entrance or exit to the runway movement areas, which are taxiways and runways.

This is a practical matter, and in the non-movement areas, such as hangers, ramps, and aprons, aircraft movements and separation are no longer the responsibility of air traffic control, but is the responsibility of other parties such as the airport itself, airlines, or other parties. The use of tracking technologies for air traffic control is therefore focused on the movement areas, not the non-movement areas, where there are limitations in aircraft tracking. Furthermore, many of the aircraft transmitting devices are switched off in non-movement areas exacerbating tracking problems in these areas.

Airport airside operations are conducted on movement areas and non-movement areas. Movement areas refer to the airport's runways and taxiways and non-movement areas refer to the aprons, ramps, maintenance facilities, de icing facilities and other areas. One of the main differences between movement and non-movement areas is that usually Air Traffic Control (ATC) is responsible for separation and safety of aircraft in the movement areas, whereas the airport or other organization is responsible for operations in the non-movement areas. This is exemplified at a typical airport where the airport's ramp management will authorize an aircraft for push back, and the aircraft will taxi to a point at the edge of the controlled movement area, and the pilot will then contact ATC by radio to request clearance to proceed into the movement area for departure.

Movement and non-movement areas are described the RNP report Development of Airport Surface Required Navigation Performance (RNP), by Rick Cassell, Alex Smith, and Dan Hicok, Rannoch Corporation, Alexandria, Va. (NASA/CR-1999-209109, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. 23681-2199, Prepared for Langley Research Center under Contract NAS1-19214), incorporated herein by reference. FIG. 1 is taken from the Cassell et al., reference and illustrates, in a simplified form, the airport movement areas, and, enclosed within dashed lines, the non-movement areas.

Since Air Traffic Control (ATC) is responsible for the movement areas, the air traffic control infrastructure is optimized to provide communications, navigation, and surveillance in the movement areas, not the non-movement areas. Therefore at a typical larger airport there exists aircraft tracking and identification systems providing generally good coverage over the movement parts of an airport, but generally not throughout the non-movement areas.

The technologies that are currently used at airports for tracking in the movement areas are classified as cooperative, primary active, and passive. Cooperative technologies interact with devices on the aircraft, primary active technologies do not interact but use a form of transmission to reflect signals from aircraft, and passive technologies are receive only. Passive can include reception of any electromagnetic, radio, or radar transmission from an aircraft including, but not limited to those for communication, navigation, and surveillance, including signals that may be reflected from the aircraft.

Cooperative technologies include transponder-based systems such as ADS-B and multilateration as described in the following papers, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.

-   -   Analysis of ADS-B, ASDE-3 and Multilateration Surveillance         Performance—NASA Atlanta Demonstration Presented at the AIAA         17th Annual Digital Avionics Systems Conference in October,         1998.     -   Application of ADS-B for Airport Surface Surveillance, AIAA 17th         Annual Digital Avionics Systems Conference, October 1998.     -   Surveillance Monitoring of Parallel Precision Approaches in a         Free Flight Environment, AIAA 16th Annual Digital Avionics         Systems Conference, October 1997.     -   Evaluation of Airport Surface Surveillance Technologies, IEEE         Radar 96 conference, Beijing, China, October 1996. This paper         reviews the evolving requirements for airport surveillance         systems, particularly the use of the Required Surveillance         Performance (RSP) concept.     -   Positive Identification of Aircraft on Surface Movement         Area—Results of FAA Trials, 10th Annual International AeroSense         Symposium, Orlando, Fla., April 1996     -   Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport—Results of FAA Trials         to Accurately Locate/Identify Aircraft on the Airport Movement         Area, IEEE PLANS, Atlanta, Ga., April 1996.     -   Improved Location/Identification of Aircraft/Ground Vehicles on         Airport Movement Areas—Results of FAA Trials, Institute of         Navigation in Santa Monica, Calif., January 1996.

In 2000, in the United States, the FAA awarded a contract to Sensis for a surface multilateration system under the program name of ASDE X. The Airport Surface Detection Equipment-Model X (ASDE-X) program was initiated in 1999 and Sensis Corporation was selected as the vendor in the year 2000. The Senate Committee on Appropriations, in its report on FAA's fiscal year (FY) 2006 appropriations, expressed concern about the pace of ASDE-X deployment and reported the FAA has not yet deployed systems to more than half of the planned sites due to changes in system design and additional requirements.

The FAA originally planned to complete ASDE-X deployment to second-tier airports (e.g., Orlando International Airport and Milwaukee General Mitchell International Airport) by FY 2007 as a low-cost alternative to Airport Surface Detection Equipment-3 (ASDE-3) radar systems, which are deployed at larger, high-volume airports. However, the FAA now plans to complete deployment by FY 2009, a two-year delay. While the FAA has already procured 36 out of 38 ASDE-X systems, only 3 systems have been commissioned for operational use as of late 2005. As of 2005, the FAA has invested about $250 million in ASDE-X and expects to spend a total of $505 million to complete the program. A map of planned ASDE-X installations (from www.asdex.net, see http://www.sensis.com/docs/128/) as well as upgrades to the older ASDE-3 systems is illustrated in FIG. 2.

Primary technologies include Radar systems such as X-Band radar (see www.terma.com, incorporated herein by reference), as well as millimeter wave radar (see www.flight-refuelling.com, www.qinetic.com, and www.transtech-solutions.com, incorporated herein by reference). Some companies also use a combination of active sensors for detecting items on airport surfaces, for example debris. Roke Manor has a mobile system as detailed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/494,271, Publication No. 20050046569, entitled “Detection of undesired objects on surfaces” published Mar. 3, 2005 and incorporated herein by reference. Qinetiq has an active system slated for Vancouver Airport to detect runway debris (See, www.qinetic.com, incorporated herein by reference).

Passive technologies include inductive loops buried in the surface as well as camera technology, both of which are described in the following papers, both of which are incorporated herein by reference:

-   -   Inductive Loop Sensor Subsystem (LSS) as a Supplemental Surface         Surveillance System—Demonstration Results, AIAA 19th Annual         Digital Avionics Systems Conference, October 2000.     -   Evaluation of FLIR/IR Camera Technology for Airport Surface         Surveillance, 10th Annual International AeroSense Symposium in         Orlando, Fla., April 1996.

Existing techniques for runway occupancy determination include the use of zones as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,927,701, entitled “Runway occupancy monitoring and warning,” issued Aug. 9, 2005, and incorporated herein by reference. Techniques for passive tracking using “bounced” signals include Roke Manor's triangulation techniques as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,930,638, entitled “Passive moving object detection system and method using signals transmitted by a mobile telephone station,” issued Aug. 16, 2005, and also incorporated herein by reference.

Given the delays in the rollout of the ASDE-X program, as well as questions as to its operability, other techniques may be required to insure that aircraft can be accurately tracked throughout an airport, in movement and non-movement areas. Collisions between aircraft and other aircraft, service vehicles, buildings, or the like, can have devastating consequences, even at taxiing speeds. Moreover, even minor damage caused by such collisions may require expensive repairs and delay flights considerably. A system is needed which can accurately track aircraft in both movement and non-movement areas, which does not necessarily rely upon a single signal or technology. Such a system should be robust, redundant, inexpensive, and easy to install.

Cell phones, PDAs and other personal communication devices may soon have no limits on their use on airplanes. If regulations allow, cell phones and other radio devices may be approved for in-flight use during most or all phases of flight. If this use is allowed, then an additional set of radio signals may be emitting from an aircraft. In addition, some phones have added a GPS chip to aid in determining their locations and for compliance with the enhanced 911 requirements.

Air France is slated to trial OnAir passenger mobile phone use. Air France will take delivery of an A318 fitted with OnAir equipment in early 2007 that will enable the use of passenger mobile phones in-flight. The airline will then use the aircraft to conduct a six-month commercial trial using the new service on short-haul flights within Europe and to and from North Africa.

The OnAir service will allow Air France passengers to use their own GSM (global system for mobile communications) phones and GPRS (general packet radio service)-enabled devices such as the Blackberry or Treo, to make and receive voice calls or to send and receive SMS (short message service) communications, or emails during the flight, without inferring with critical aircraft systems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed toward methods, techniques and apparatus to extend the positive identification and tracking of aircraft from movement areas into the non-movement areas. By using the data fusion process pioneered by Rannoch Corporation, assignee of the present application, a number of different signal sources may be used to provide aircraft tracking information for both movement and non-movement areas in and near an airport (as well as in flight). Such a system does not need to rely upon a single signal source, such as a transponder. Thus, if a pilot turns off a transponder upon landing, the system may still be able to track such an aircraft on the ground, using other signals emanating from, or reflected by, the aircraft.

In one aspect of the present invention, a system or systems, for determining an aircraft's position and/or identification, composed of the following data sources and combinations of these sources:

-   -   Single AirScene sensor combined with optical sensor or sensors     -   Multilateration in combination with optical sensor or sensors     -   Optical sensor or sensors combined with ADS-B data     -   ASDI (ETMS) combined with optical sensor and MLat     -   ASDI (ETMS) combined with optical and single sensor     -   Collocated AirScene sensor or sensors and optical sensor or         sensors     -   Voice recognition for registration number (previous Rannoch         patent) combined with optical sensor or sensors     -   UAT 978 MHz/1090 MHz transmissions combined with optical sensor         or sensors     -   Passive broadband and narrowband multilateration using the TDOA         principle for a variety of high frequency aircraft signals         including data link, DME, SSR, search, target, and weather         radar, and other emitters.     -   Logs (either electronic or hand written) from FBOs, airport         personnel, catering or other operators at the airport that         describe which aircraft were where and when they were there.         Logs include registration number and time from which landing or         departure time could be determined.

The comparison of one, or a combination of the sources above would result in a dynamic performance assessment of the accuracy of any of the sources relative to the others or known good source or sources. Such a system could be used to rate how well an identification is known and those not well known could be submitted for human intervention.

Prevalent aircraft and commercial technologies rely on analog and digital communications from the aircraft and other sources at the airport. For example, it was reported in the Journal of Air Traffic Control in 2005 that a possible source of surface accidents was due to proximate communicating with ATC and airport authorities on separate discrete analog frequencies, known to various parties at the airport but unknown to each other. In one embodiment of the present invention, by monitoring frequency use around an airport, it is possible to identify, on automated basis, if aircraft, within the same zone, are using different communications frequencies and therefore possibly unaware of one another. In addition to VHF analog or digital communications, possible channels of communication include reception of various communications signals emanating from the aircraft including ACARS and CPDLC.

In another embodiment of the present invention, commercial cell phones and other personal communication devices provide another source of aircraft position information in the non-movement area. Depending on the aviation authority, cell phones are permitted for use at the gate, the non-movement area, or the movement areas. It is anticipated that that cell phones may shortly be approved for use in all phases of flight.

Presently, however, at the very least, cell phones become active when an aircraft's wheels touch down in the movement area. By correlating an aircraft ID and at least one onboard cell phone on board (the aircraft and cell phone have the same position, speed, and direction) before the aircraft's transponder is turned off, it can be tracked all the way to the gate by following the cell phone, even if the aircraft turns off its transponder. This form of cell phone tracking can be used as a backup to other tracking techniques, as there may be situations where no cell phones are active on a given aircraft during taxiing. Logic may be used to associate a group of cell phones being tracked with an aircraft. Cell phones may be associated with aircraft based on multiple parameters such as location, time, speed, direction, and other factors.

The use of cell phones in an aircraft tracking system extends the ability to track the aircraft by 1) determining which airplane a given cell phone is on by using the fusion of multiple tracking sources; 2) tagging that aircraft with the aircraft identification information for the duration of the flight; and 3) using constantly updated cell phone tracking services and systems to maintain GPS track of aircraft from gate to gate.

For example, some phones have added a GPS chip to aid in determining their locations and for compliance with the enhanced 911 requirements. The cell phone companies or the services that access their data may get updates from a number of these types of phones while they are operating from the airplanes. This data may provide a highly accurate flight track of the aircraft via the cell phone network for the entire flight and all ground movements. The technology used to transmit the cell phone calls from on board the plane will be transmitting for the entire flight to maintain the service. Multilateration techniques may be used to track this known source even after the 1090 MHz transponder has been turned off in the non-movement or gate areas.

The enhanced 911 system requirements have spawned a lot of investment in cell phone location systems. Some are based on embedded GPS chips in the phones while others use triangulation/multilateration. There are a number of companies that provide location services by contracting with the cell phone providers and many state transportation systems are using this type of system to identify traffic backups based on the cell phones. This information may be used to track aircraft in the present invention. Likewise other devices using various transmissions such as 80211 devices may be tracked and associated with an aircraft.

An example of third party cell location service provider is illustrated at http://www.cell-loc.com/how_tech.html, incorporated herein by reference.

Note that in the cell phone tracking embodiment of the present invention, idea, it is not necessary to track any particular or known individual (in most instances), only to determine the anonymous location, speed, direction of as many phones as possible that are tracking together, indicating they are all on the same vehicle, or those that are tracking along with the know location of a vehicle. This applies to the tracking on the surface as well as in the air. The present invention may operate interactively with cell phone tracking systems to discover coincident targets and assign an identification based on the location and identification data from other independent sources. This track would be maintained as long as possible or until a certain condition was met. Thus, privacy concerns of individual cell phone users are protected.

For example, once it is determined that a number of phones are tracking together and/or those particular phones are located at the same location and have the same speed and direction as a vehicle identified by the system through other means, those phones are assigned to that vehicle and their positional information and any available vehicle identification information is grouped, tracked, and stored in the system. In the case of an airplane, the system could be set to terminate the tracking when phones were no longer on the same vehicle or the location of the vehicle was determined to be at the terminus of its travels.

Other passive tracking technologies useful for tracking aircraft on the ground as part of the transition from movement to non-movement areas are described in Super-Radar, Done Dirt Cheap, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_(—)42/b3854113.htm Business Week Online, Oct. 20, 2003, incorporated herein by reference. This technology is not able to determine the details of the aircraft it is tracking, but once this data is integrated into the present invention the aircraft may be tagged up with its identification information from our other sources.

Aircraft also continuously emit signals from on-board navigation devices such as Distance Measurement Equipment (DME). While these signals do not identify a specific aircraft they do contribute to the overall track update. Once an aircraft has been identified by other signals (e.g., transponder or any other emissions from the aircraft or reflected by the aircraft) and a track established, these other signals, such as DME signals, can be used to maintain the track, even if the transponder is turned off. Information on the operation of DME is provided in http://www.faa.gov/ATpubs/AIM/, incorporated herein by reference.

In another embodiment of the present invention, aircraft may be tracked using reflected cell phone signals. Some organizations have researched the use of passive cell phone Radar. For example, Roke Manor Research, has developed a system (called CellDar as a trade mark by Roke Manor) for tracking cars on highways as documented in the flowing web pages, all of which are incorporated herein by reference:

-   -   http://www.roke.co.uk/sensors/stealth/celldar_traffic.asp     -   http://www.roke.co.uk/sensors/stealth/cell_phone_radar_concept.asp     -   http://www.roke.co.uk/sensors/stealth/celldar_coastal.asp     -   http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,811027,00.html         (Note that some of these web pages appear to have been removed.         However, discussion of CELLDAR can still be found at Roke RADAR,         Design and development of miniature radars and fuze sensors         through to major radar programme builds,         http://www.roke.co.uk/skills/radar/, ©2006, also incorporated         herein by reference).

In one embodiment of the present invention passive cell phone radar is applied as another aircraft source of position and velocity of the aircraft, which may be combined with other data to produce an aircraft track.

Optical systems have been employed to identify and track aircraft, with limited success. One of the issues with optical systems is the accuracy of the system, taking into account the many variables in terms of tail number size, placement, dynamic position with regard to camera, lighting, weather and other issues. Therefore, many vendors of these systems require that a human be in loop to do the identification or verify the automatic identification in cases where the computer was not able to do recognize the registration number with a high probability.

Using a combination of Mode S decoding, through ADS, multilateration, single sensor, ETMS, ASDI, broadband multilateration or airport systems such as gate management systems, it is possible to simultaneously decode an aircraft's tail number using multiple flight tracking and optical techniques. For those aircraft equipped with Mode S, the complete and integrated system can track its own performance by comparing the electronic decode of registration number to the optical decode. The integration of multiple tracking sources with an optical system also allows the optimization of the optical system and reduces the cost of such a system by minimizing the amount of human intervention required. Only those aircraft not already recognized by the other methods and not automatically recognized by the optical tracking system would require the expense of human involvement.

For example, a Mode S equipped aircraft departs from a particular airport. That aircraft's registration number is easily recognized and tracked by the MLAT or ADS systems. The optical system also detects the aircraft and but might not automatically recognize the registration number with a high degree of accuracy. In an optical only system, this aircraft ID would be flagged as missed or low confidence and a human operator would then have to physically look at the pictures to try to determine the registration number. If the optical system were integrated with other tracking sources that did make a positive identification, this aircraft would not be flagged by the system and no human would be required to manually read the registration number. This embodiment significantly improves the efficiency and capacity of an operator who would have wasted time to visually review photographic data for an aircraft that was already positively identified by other means.

The system may also be used to detect cases when the aircraft was squawking a registration number that was different than that painted on the side of the aircraft. Warnings would be automatically generated and sent to the owner/operator or to the authorities.

Comparison of the different registration number acquisition techniques at a particular airport during a specific time period, during specific conditions (weather, lighting, etc.) may show that the optical system operates with a high performance for the known Mode S aircraft it may be practical to skip or reduce the level of human-in-the-loop review for non Mode S aircraft during these particular periods. This measured confidence in the optical recognition system may vary as conditions changed and when the confidence fell below a certain level, the system may automatically call for more human intervention. This kind of dynamic performance measurement allows the operator to focus on other tasks and increase the efficiency and capacity of that operator. The converse is also true. During bad visual conditions, the dynamic performance measurement results will indicate a poor performance from the optical system. This feedback would warn the optical system that its performance was degrading and different optimizations could be tried until the percent positively recognized, as calibrated against known good identifications from the flight tracking system, improved.

A history of performance for each device under each condition will also help determine where and when to improve the system. For instance, some optical devices may work perfectly with high accuracy where others do not. Different systems could be fitted until the performance was improved and verified in real world conditions through comparison with the flight-tracking database.

An integrated system that can positively track the arrival and/or departure of a high percentage of aircraft can be used to reliably monitor the activity of an individual aircraft. The integration of aircraft ID and tracking systems with logs of fuel use and filed flight plans will allow the system to automatically detect and identify discrepancies in the data based on the know performance characteristics of an individual aircraft.

The system may also be used to warn/notify the operator that an aircraft of interest is landing or departing. This is useful for catching scofflaws, slow payers, non-payers, or any aircraft operator of interest based on the information in the system. Using multiple installations and fusing ETMS data, billing data, FBO data etc., the system can tell where an aircraft went, if it went were it was supposed to, if it used an appropriate amount of fuel to get there, and the like. Applications include law enforcement, security, on the spot debt collection and the like.

For example, through its various data sources, the system determines a particular aircraft is about to land or take off. The operator/owner of this aircraft is over due with a use fee payment. The system may automatically warn on-field operations that this aircraft was active and the debt could be collected immediately while still on the field. This warning message may be sent by electronic means or voice commands and could include the amount of the debt and the aircraft's exact location.

Security applications may include the detection of aircraft whose fuel use, as determined through acquisition of the fuel use figures from the airport's fuel supplier, did not match the origin destination as filed on their flight plan. This would indicate that the aircraft deviated from the flight plan, possibly for illicit purposes.

The following references, all of which are incorporated herein by reference, are related to acoustic and vibration tracking of aircraft in the air and on the ground:

-   -   http://www.arl.army.mil/cgi-bin/tto/dtttest/db.pl?db=default&view_records=2&ID=1076     -   Acoustic System for Aircraft Detection and Tracking, based on         Passive Microphone Arrays. Caronna, Rosello, Testa, 148th         Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America,         http://pcfite.ing.uniroma1.it/upload/research/4psp71107948         2021710.pdf November 2004     -   Michel, U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,308, issued Mar. 7, 2989.

The output from these types of systems, when combined and fused with the other sources of aircraft tracking information already included in the AirScene™ system, provides another independent source of positional information that can be compared and contrasted with the tracking data from other sources to improve the capability of the system to track aircraft. Seismic tracking should be mentioned along with acoustic tracking. They are related to each other and to the multilateration techniques used by the AirScene™ and VERA-E systems to determine an aircraft's location by tracking the energy it emits or reflects.

Depending on the airport, Mode S identification can positively identify between 10% and 99% of the aircraft operating at or in the vicinity of the airport. Those not able to be positively identified by Mode S include aircraft squawking the wrong data, aircraft not equipped with Mode S technology (such as general aviation aircraft), foreign aircraft, and the like. But even these non Mode S aircraft are tracked by the multilateration system and stored as tracks with an unknown or non unique identification.

Utilizing the Mode S identification and tracking system to optimize the optical identification process was discussed previously but that such a system can also be used to augment identification data for the non Mode S aircraft tracked by the multilateration system. If an unidentified, but tracked aircraft, is also captured and identified by an optical tracking system or other system or method, the identification data can be positively associated to the flight track based on factors such as, but not limited to, time, location, speed, and runway. This feed back of identification data back into the multilateration system can significantly increase the identification capture rate and accuracy of the multilateration or other electronic aircraft tracking system.

Such a system can work in real time or in a post processing mode, depending on the time required for the non real-time tracking and identification system to determine the identification of the aircraft and for that data to be processed and associated with a captured flight track. The use of such a system significantly improves the tracking of non Mode S aircraft and would be especially useful at small airports, general aviation airports, or military airports where there is a higher percentage of non Mode S aircraft.

Other aircraft tracking systems also benefit from this method of identifying aircraft. Systems that track aircraft using methods that have no means of identifying an aircraft may benefit significantly from identification data supplied by these other means. Systems such as VERA-E system manufactured by ERA in the Czech Republic, track aircraft using passive broad band emissions that may not include any identification data.

The system also allows higher positive identification at airports where foreign aircraft operate. The Mode S identification relies on the ability of the system to resolve the aircraft registration number from the Mode S data being transmitted by that aircraft. Certain countries (United States, Australia, and Germany) have known algorithms that allow the system to compute the registration number where as others use a database that may not be available or is difficult or impossible to acquire. Utilizing an image capture system in combination with a multilateration, or other passive flight tracking system, allows the system to associate the electronically received Mode S identification with the actual registration number from the aircraft.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates, in a simplified form, the airport movement areas, and, enclosed within dashed lines, the non-movement areas.

FIG. 2 is a map of planned ASDE-X installations (from www.asdex.net) as well as upgrades to the older ASDE-3 systems.

FIG. 3 sis a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of the invention as used for an aircraft arriving at an airport.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of the invention showing an aircraft on departure.

FIG. 5 is a drawing illustrating the different types of emissions possible from an aircraft on the ground or in the air.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating shows an embodiment of the invention as used for an aircraft arriving at an airport. As the aircraft descends and lands it is tracked and identified on the movement area at the airport. Using a combination of ETMS, radar, MLAT, ADS, acoustical or optical tracking 100 the aircraft location is known 110. At the same time, the identification of the aircraft is known through a combination of systems and procedures 200 producing a variety of ways to identify the aircraft, either by its tail number, Mode S address or call sign 210.

As the aircraft transitions from the movement area to the non-movement area, a combination of unique signals may be used for tracking, such as navigation signals (DME), cell phone data, airport video or any other electromagnetic radiation broadcast from the aircraft 120 thus providing the aircraft's ground track 130.

As the aircraft moves from the movement area into the non-movement area the ID already established is transferred with the track of the aircraft, and may be verified by optical camera recognition, or through data link information, such as ACARS or CPDLC 220, 230. Together, these data provide a complete air traffic picture with position and identification, all the way to the aircraft gate 300.

If the aircraft transitions before the overlapping tracking and identification data can be solidly established, the probable ID can be established based on last known position, probable taxi route, optical camera recognition, parking or gate location, type of aircraft, airline, time of day, or gate management system input from an integrating gate management system data.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the invention showing an aircraft on departure. As the aircraft sits at the gate or other location, its location and position are clearly known, and tagging of the aircraft may be accomplished manually or by using data from the gate management system (GMS) 600. As the aircraft pushes back certain system on the aircraft will be operating including navigation devices, perhaps transponders, and perhaps some cell phone or other commercial communications devices 400 providing an aircraft track 410. The manually tagged aircraft identification will follow the track of the aircraft 500, 510 and may be updated by ADS information, ACARS or CPDLC. As the aircraft enters the movement area (usually after receiving ATC clearance by voice or data link.) it can be tracked by conventional surveillance 420, 430 and identified accordingly, or through other techniques such as acoustical tracking, optical tracking, or voice communications (VX) 520, 530.

FIG. 5 is an illustration showing the typical emissions from a modern aircraft as discussed in context of the present invention. Emissions can come from any system or direction. These emissions can be used in the present invention to identify an aircraft and also indicate aircraft position through multilateration and other means.

While the preferred embodiment and various alternative embodiments of the invention have been disclosed and described in detail herein, it may be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. 

1. A system to for determining if proximate aircraft at the airport are using different communication frequencies and provide aircraft and controller alerts accordingly, comprising: means for tracking aircraft proximate to an airport, means for receiving from aircraft, radio communication signals, means for correlating radio communication signals with corresponding aircraft, comparing received frequency of received radio communication from one proximate aircraft with frequency of a received radio communication of another proximate aircraft, and generating a controller alert of a frequency of received radio communication from one proximate aircraft is different than a frequency of a received radio communication of another proximate aircraft.
 2. A system for detecting anomalies in aircraft data, comprising the steps of: a receiver or receivers for receiving from the aircraft, an electronic signal indicating an indicia of aircraft data; means for comparing the indicia with a second source of aircraft data; and means for indicating when a disagreement between the indicia and the second source of aircraft data occurs.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the indicia comprises a reported aircraft number and the second source of aircraft data includes an optical reading of the aircraft number from the aircraft.
 4. The system of claim 2, wherein the indicia comprises a reporting of fuel on board, and the second source of aircraft data includes an estimate of an amount of fuel consumed for a given aircraft flight path, wherein the means for indicating reports if the reported amount of fuel on board is inconsistent with the fuel consumption for a reported flight path.
 5. The system of claim 2, wherein the indicia comprises a reporting of aircraft position, and the second source of aircraft data includes a determined calculation of aircraft position, wherein the means for indicating reports if the reported position is inconsistent with the determined position.
 6. The system of claim 2, wherein the indicia comprises a reporting of aircraft number, and the second source of aircraft data includes an optically read aircraft number, wherein the means for indicating reports if the reported aircraft number is inconsistent with the optically read aircraft number.
 7. A system for improving the accuracy and completeness of aircraft data, comprising the steps of: a receiver or receivers for receiving from the aircraft, an electronic signal indicating an indicia of aircraft data; means for comparing the indicia with a second source of aircraft data; and means for indicating when a disagreement between the indicia and the second source of aircraft data occurs means for determining what data are incomplete, incorrect, or missing means of inserting the corrected data into the database
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the indicia comprises a reported aircraft number and the second source of aircraft data includes an optical reading of the aircraft number from the aircraft.
 9. The system of claim 7, wherein the indicia comprises a reporting of aircraft position, and the second source of aircraft data includes a determined calculation of aircraft position, wherein the means for indicating reports if the reported position is inconsistent with the determined position.
 10. The system of claim 7, wherein the indicia comprises a reporting of aircraft number, and the second source of aircraft data includes an optically read aircraft number, wherein the means for indicating reports if the reported aircraft number is inconsistent with the optically read aircraft number. 